We were running 86 total treasure [1 x10, 2 x10, 3 x8, 4 x4, 5 x2, 6 x2, with three UT's: Claw Cannon , Forged Papers , & Plague .] we agree on a 45 to win, using a "blind hunt" house rule.
*blind hunt is all islands were assigned an amount of treasures [4, in this case] and when exploring unexplored islands you pulled the treasure from a box and replaced what treasure a player didn't collect.

I'll post what specifics i can remember, but it was a good game with some interesting twists.

I've played another 3 game series, this time between a different version of UPS and the EA Gold Runners fleet. Again, if you haven't checked out these fleets yet I suggest you do so. The links are below.

The island setup was a little bit different after a comment by marhawkman on BoardGameGeek.

Game 1:
The Coral was Hidden Cove'd to an island but she only found one silver coin on the island. She traded it home for +4 to give UPS4 7 gold at the end of the first turn, but she wouldn't be able to get the extra +1 from the silver explorer back home if she continued to use that first island. However, because of the Sea Crane's +1 and Gallows' +2 there would always be at least +3 to the coin no matter the color. The Coral could go to another island and look for silver coins there, but she decided to stay at the first island.

By the end of the second turn UPS4 had 12 gold on their HI.

On the third turn both of the EA rolls for the EA Runners fleet succeeded, with the Joya del Sol bringing home 7 gold. However, it was too little, too late as the Coral traded a 2 coin for the win after adding the +3 to make it 17-7 in favour of UPS4.

Game 2:
For the second game the HI's were closer together towards the middle. UPS4 went first and the Coral actually found the same treasure mix on her island as in the last game (one silver 3 and three gold 2's).

This second game was quick and predictable after the Coral found the exact same treasure mix (the treasure was mixed up, it was just a coincidence). There was a little excitement however, with the Algeciras taking out two masts on the Longshanks after she docked at the island. The Joya again made it home, making the final score 17-8 in favour of UPS4.

Game 3:
The third game saw the HI's a medium distance apart. The Coral once again only found one silver coin, but this time it was a 1, with all three gold coins being 2's. This meant that it would take four turns instead of three for UPS4 to win the game since there were no 3's on the island and therefore UPS4 couldn't bring in more than 5 gold in one turn.

The Algeciras was approaching the Coral's island, forcing the Coral to act and build Dead Man's Point.

The third turn of this game was the most exciting of the entire series. The Algeciras finally had a chance at the Coral, but only with a ram since the Coral can't be shot at while docked. The Algeciras rammed but rolled a 1! She did manage to hit both times against the Longshanks, leaving the pirate ship with 1 mast. The Pirates retaliated on their turn by dismasting the Algeciras with both the Longshanks and Dead Man's Point, but Captain Jack Hawkins died in the boarding action. At the end of turn 3 UPS4 led 12-7.

The Star of Siam and Joya del Sol couldn't get any gold home on the fourth turn, and the Coral traded another coin to a 17-7 victory!

For this series UPS version 4.0 beat EA Gold Runners 3 games to 0. This UPS fleet is fun to play although I think my favourite of the three UPS fleets (now that I've played them all) is the second one with the extreme speed of having a sac crew on a ship as fast as the Hai Peng.

For this series UPS version 4.0 beat EA Gold Runners 3 games to 0. This UPS fleet is fun to play although I think my favourite of the three UPS fleets (now that I've played them all) is the second one with the extreme speed of having a sac crew on a ship as fast as the Hai Peng.

Fascinating! After looking back at all the UPS fleets, I thought UPS 4.0 would be the weakest fleet, as I abandoned the SAC/EA abilities to focus on +1/+2 gold abilities. It was much slower (4 turns or so), but wound up with the best win record. I wonder how much faster it might be if it finds a good mix of silver on the first island?

If I had to do a UPS 5.0, I think I'd take the 10 points I spent on Longshanks and see if I can get an SAC or EA ability on the Coral (or a similar ship). Adding Favor of the Gods to get rid of Becalmed would probably be a good thing, too.

Yesterday my group continued with the 8th installment of our 60 pt pure nation fleet game. Sorry I am way too lazy to take pictures lol.

While the scenarios have changed, all have been straight nation fleets, 60 points. All have had at least 6-8 players.

The first battle Davy Jones and the Cursed won.
The second battle was much more messy, and made us change our end condition for these big games. Yet again though, the Cursed and Davy Jones (officially) won.
The third game was won by the "Other" Factions, mostly made up by Barbary Pirates. This was our first game with the "Sea Monster" Scenario.
In the fourth, also with Sea Monsters, the Spanish came out on top.
In the fifth the Spanish repeat as champions.
In the sixth, a Halloween theme with "Sharknados" led the Pirates to finally win a nation battle.
And in the seventh, a Christmas theme with Santa Claus, the English came out on top.

For this 8th game, our group was missing a few players for good reasons, so we only had 6 planning on playing - no Spanish or French player. However, one other person bailed on us due to sickness, so for the first time we went ahead and did the battle with less than 6 players. Unfortunately for everyone but the English player (which was me), the person who called in had the second largest collection and was probably the most bloodthirsty (after me lol). He also had "choice" which meant he could have come with any nation he wanted, and thus pick his strongest faction. This lack of a strong player to balance the English was not a good thing for the other fleets.

Since we had 5 players, and our map for these games are always as symmetric as possible, we set up the map as a 5 sided star, with home islands at the points. In between the home islands were wild islands, reefs, and whirlpools. In the center of the star was the rest of the wild islands, more reefs, and a set of icebergs.

Instead of a Santa Claus visit, we decided to revisit the SHARKNADO scenario, where a 6 rolled through a whirlpool created a shark attack on the ship. This only happened once the whole game (with fewer players, we had fewer whirlpool visits), and it happened to a submerged submarine, lol.

Dice were rolled, and the English won the right to go first. The English came to fight, and was led by the mighty Titan and London. Its treasure running was chiefly delegated to the large and in charge Aberdeen Baron. In a last second change before set-up, the English controller (me) decided to nix the canceller on the Titan to free up one cargo, and instead bring in the Antelope as its 4th ship.

Next in clockwise order was the Pirate faction. They were led by the Crimson Angel on the Darkhawk II, flanked by the Longshanks and two treasure ships, the Swift and the Lady Newport.

Next was the Cursed faction, led by (no surprise) all-powerful Davy Jones on the Divine Dragon. The cursed player was a little unprepared and lacked a large cursed collection. The result was that Davy Jones had a squid (forget which one, lol) and the rather slow Whydah backing him up.

Next in order was the miscellaneous player, who despite having a pretty good collection had very little Norse, Barbary, or Jade ships. The result was a mostly mercenary fleet, led by the Santa Molina and two mercenary submarines (the fear laden Terror being one of them). Their fourth ship and only way of bringing home gold was the barbary corsair Splendor.

Last was the American faction. The American player likes to try new things (mostly ill advised and wacky), so between this and a lack of really powerful American ships brought a fleet led by the Ghostwalker and Pawtucket. Two one masted ships flanked these ships, giving the Americans only 8 total masts (the English had 16, double!).

Play started, and the English split their fleet in two directions. The Pirates all made toward their nearest wild islands. Then Davy Jones's turn came.

Six.

The English and Pirates player's eyes widened with apprehension. It was only the 3rd turn, and this marked the first game changing moment. The Cursed player, fearful of the nearer Darkhawk, sends it through a whirlpool, and out within a captain's shot of the London. The Pirate's player sighed, while the English player could not believe his Titan was not affected, and that he may have a chance of taking the Darkhawk on turn 2. The Misc player sighed, clearly hoping the Titan would be punished.

The English's glee soon evaporated, as the Misc player sent both 3 masted submarines, submerged, through a whirpool directly next to the Titan. After the Americans moved out toward their islands, the English made their move. Sir Christopher Myngs made it all but a certainty and gave the London 8 possible shots on the Darkhawk. She only needed 4, as the Darkhawk was derelicted and then towed and captured with the London's second move action. Meanwhile, the Titan took a defensive position between the submarines and the Aberdeen Baron.

During the next few turns, the Pirates continued to explore. The Lady Newport reached a far island between the Pirates and Cursed and turned up Rum. With only one crew aboard, a large piece of 5 gold sat waiting for the taking. Davy Jones knew a prize when he saw it, and muscled his way over to the Newport, eventually derelicting and capturing her.

Meanwhile, the two Misc submarines continued to harass the Titan, repeatedly ramming and praying for a six. The English controller kicked himself for changing the canceller for the Antelope, but luckily for him three turns and 6 rams came, but no six was rolled. By this time, the London and Myngs had double actioned the Darkhawk home, and Crimson Angel had double actioned once to get the Darkhawk nearly back to full. The Aberdeen Baron had made it home with a full island's haul, and the Antelope had taken one piece of treasure and headed to a third island.

With her fleet relatively safe from the submarines, the Titan looked toward the biggest threat left - the Divine Dragon. After a turn moving closer, Thomas Gunn's reroll gave the Titan the doubled action she needed. Hoping her cannons would hit true, she braved a whirlpool and double actioned right next to the Divine Dragon, opening fire. She only hit 3 times. Davy Jones was angry, and he did not want to lose his Rum. On his next turn, he gave himself a double action and opened fire on the Titan with 6 shots. However, the Divine Dragon's horrible cannons took their toll, and Davy missed 5 out of 6 shots. This single shoot action probably changed the game and pretty much guaranteed an English victory. On the Titan's next turn, the Divine Dragon was derelicted and her second action let the Titan capture Davy Jones. The English now controlled a whopping 4 double action crew.

The Americans during most of this time were gathering gold, and had eventually run into an island at the same time as the squid. At this point we totally forgot (probably because we hadn't played in like a year) the rules if Sea Monsters can explore. We could not find it anywhere in the code, so we went with that they could (I am pretty sure this was wrong, but it made great game play), and the squid took all 4 gold pieces. The result was the American moved in and swarmed to sting the poor squid enough to sink it. The American player showed his usual weird style and overturned a captain on BOTH 1 masted ships, and the two along with the Pawtucket tried to make calamari. The Ghostwalker, having lost its helmsman to Natives a few turns earlier, eventually joined in, and the squid was sunk (not boarded), which means the whole island's treasure was lost.

Meanwhile, the Misc player had moved his submarines to harass the Aberdeen and Antelope who were trying to secure the third island for the English. Seeing that the Darkhawk was fully repaired and moving toward his former pirate allies, and that the Titan had captured Davy Jones, the Misc player knew that he had very little time before the English secured the game. Therefore, he gambled and surfaced his submarines to fire on the Aberdeen Baron. The Santa Molina also whirlpooled in in an attempt to bypass the Baron and take the island's gold.

Unfortunately, the submarines only hit the Aberdeen once. To make matters worse, Davy Jones rolled a six on his first turn for the English, and commanded one submarine to open fire on the other, hitting it twice. The London whirlpooled in after the Santa Molina to protect the Aberdeen and retreating Antelope - getting a second action. When the smoke cleared, one sub and the Santa Molina were derelict. The Aberdeen got away with only one hit, but the London was damaged from the Whirlpool and mines which the Santa Molina had on her. The third submarine submerged, saving itself.

The Titan broke tow of the Diving Dragon, leaving it safely in the corner to let Davy do his work, and towed the Rum on the Lady Newport, eventually taking it herself home, leaving the Newport derelict near a whirlpool. The Darkhawk diverted to the Rum island, which still had 3 gold pieces on it, emptied it, and then turned toward the center and the derelicted Longshanks and the Swift trying to bring it home.

Oh yeah, the Longshanks. The poor Pirate player, after losing her Darkhawk in round 2, had her Longshanks find Hades Map on a wild island... I was to her right. Three rounds in a row she rolled a 5, and three round in a row the English directed the poor Longhshanks into an iceberg.

The Titan also diverted towards the Longshanks, and despite some excellent delay tactics, the Darkhawk and Titan were too much (Davy Jones rolling a 5 and giving Crimson Angel an extra action when she failed), and both the Swift and Longshanks were captured, both with gold on them. Just for good measure, the Titan derelicted the Whydah on its way to the Longshanks.

After the London, Antelope, and Aberdeen emptied the remaining islands, the Misc player used his working submarine which had a shipwright on it, to repair the Santa Molina, but it was clearly too late. The slow Americans could not intervene, and the Aberdeen did the honors of emptying the last gold off the last island, creating one of our end conditions.

By the end, the English controlled 4 of the Pirates' ships, plus the Divine Dragon. The corner island, which contained Rum, also had a whopping 13 more gold on it (a 7!, 4, 2). The English were the clear winners with a staggering 43 gold. Second place went to the Pirates with 11. The Misc had 10, Americans 5, Cursed 0. The squid went down with 11 gold.

After only 4.5 hours - easily our shortest of these games - The English repeat as champions of the 60 pt Nation Battle.

(yeah I FINALLY won... although the victory was a little hollow considering the small amount of players and the lackluster fleets that some of the others brought... oh well)

However, the Divine Dragon's horrible cannons took their toll, and Davy missed 5 out of 6 shots. This single shoot action probably changed the game and pretty much guaranteed an English victory. On the Titan's next turn, the Divine Dragon was derelicted and her second action let the Titan capture Davy Jones. The English now controlled a whopping 4 double action crew.

Wow, that sounds exactly like a ton of my games! The English always benefit in combat because their cannon ranks are generally better than everyone else's.

It sounds like you would have won anyway since you had the most gold by far, but you definitely got lucky with the dice. Davy Jones, the London going 4/4, Maps of Hades, and bad rolls from those submarines.

Always love seeing these reports! I didn't realize it had been a full year. First battle report of 2015!

yes, a full year =( We have had 10 people total play regularly. 5 of us live near each other, but 2 live 1.5 hours north and 2 live 2.5 hours south. Those 4 are two couple, both with young kids (I also have young kids). The 10th, and probably most passionate of all of us moved to california last year =. So its been tough. We need to branch out and find some strangers who play lol.

As for this game, yes the dice were very friendly. The real issue was almost every gun that shot at me for the whole game was only 3 rank.

Well, at least you have people you can play with, Volt. I'm stuck playing Pirates Solitaire at the moment (and even that I haven't done for a few months). I might have to see if some of my co-workers might be interested in giving it a try, and possibly forming a regular group that will meet once or twice a month.

The next three game series would be between my Hai Peng Fort Frenzy fleet and a fleet that was created recently with some of my new ships. The first game was particularly long and exciting, even complex to a degree.

Turn 1:
The American Pirates (abbreviated AP's) went first, using Hidden Cove to catapult the Amity out to the middle island. She explored and found Barbary Banner.

This Hai Peng can move 4S and 4L total distance because of Mycron on the Patagonia. She couldn't quite reach the furthest island, and since the Amity had already docked at the middle island, the Hai Peng was forced to sail to the northwestern island. However, she found Holy Water, Pirate Globe and two 2's. This was a problem because all forts cost at least 3 gold and therefore the Hai Peng couldn't build a fort on the first turn. The HP took one of the 2 coins and traded the other one home via CJS and the Lezard.

Turn 2:
The Bandido docked at the northeastern island, while the Roanoke was not yet in range of either the Hai Peng or the Banshee's Cry. With a helmsman and Blackheart the Roanoke could move up to L+S+L+S, quite fast but technically only half the total speed of the Hai Peng.

The reveal of Pirate Globe on the first turn proved to be very beneficial to the Hai Peng fleet (Hai Peng Fort Frenzy or HPFF). The Globe revealed that on the western island where the Banshee's Cry was about to dock, there was Maps of Alexandria, Jailhouse Dog and two 5's. On the northeastern island where the Bandido had docked there was a 5 and three 2's. Because the Bandido was about to take treasure from her island and that island was closer to the AP's HI (plus the fact that it had more gold on it), the HP sailed off to the island where the Bandido was docked. With 8 total move segments she was able to get there easily and also position herself in a way that let her shoot at the Bandido while staying out of range of the Roanoke. One of her two shots hit to dismast the Bandido. She then sent the 5 home to build Paradis de la Mer on the island as the Banshee's Cry docked at the western island.

(The gold is already on the AP's HI because I forgot to take a picture at the end of the turn.)

Turn 3:
The Amity docked home her 10 gold including the 5 from Barbary Banner, giving the AP's a 10-2 gold advantage. Knowing that of the 11 gold that was on the northeastern island (with Paradis), only 7 could be transferred home (making the score 10-9 at a maximum), the Roanoke made the decision to keep sailing west towards the Banshee's Cry.

The Hai Peng couldn't quite make it to the western island where the Banshee's Cry was docked, partly because she had docked on the other side of the island on the previous turn to shoot at the Bandido and avoid the Roanoke. As a result the HP couldn't build a fort on this turn either, with three islands either emptied or having a fort on them already. The HP also realized that there wasn't enough gold in Paradis de la Mer to win by simply transferring it home via CJS, not to mention that the oarsmen aboard the Lezard would run out anyway. Knowing that the HP would have a shot at the western island on the following turn, the Banshee's Cry sailed away from the island because it would be easy for the Roanoke to sink her on the next turn and take the gold with Divers. The Banshee's Cry and Hai Peng both made sure they were out of the Roanoke's range.

Turn 4:
The Bandido was scuttled since Paradis would have sunk her anyway, leaving the AP's with the Roanoke and Amity. HPFF forgot about the explorer on the Roanoke, and the Roanoke used him to grab both 5's from the western island, saccing one of her two oarsmen to make enough space. Jailhouse Dog was used to eliminate the Holy Water that the HP had loaded. This was a blow to HPFF because they had wanted to use Jailhouse Dog to eliminate Barbary Banner to deny the AP's 5 extra gold. The Roanoke's foremast cannon was just out of range of the Banshee's Cry.

HPFF now realized that to win the game they would have to steal at least one of the 5's on board the Roanoke. The Banshee's Cry had nowhere to run and no islands to explore, so she rammed the Roanoke out of desperation, losing both rolls and one of her two oarsmen. The Hai Peng sailed back to Paradis and transferred home the original 5 used to build the fort by leaving two 2's as the gold necessary to keep the fort in operation. The gold count was now 10-7 in favour of the AP's.

Turn 5:
The Roanoke sank the Banshee's Cry, while the Amity wasn't fast enough to ram the HP. The Hai Peng sent home 2 more gold from Paradis, leaving 4 gold permanently in the fort (10-9, AP's winning).

Turn 6:
The Roanoke started to sail home. The Lezard, with no more oarsmen to transfer and no gold to unload at her HI, finally set sail. At this point the game was up to the HP and the Lezard (but realistically only the HP) to steal gold from the Roanoke and get away with it. The HP still had the 2 in her cargo hold from early in the game. This Hai Peng is so fast that she was able to go all the way home from Paradis and still sail back out again and catch the Roanoke.

Turn 7:
The Roanoke moved twice by saccing her second oarsman. The HP dropped off her 2 coin at her HI, giving HPFF an 11-10 lead.

Turn 8:
The Roanoke sacced her explorer to move twice once again, leaving her about a centimeter from her HI.

The moment was finally at hand! The Hai Peng was faced with her greatest challenge yet. With Mycron she was able to move and shoot twice before ramming the Roanoke. She missed both shots on the first action but hit both times on the second action, leaving the Roanoke with three masts. The Hai Peng rammed the Roanoke on the port side to avoid a potential ram by the Amity on the following turn. However, the ram roll failed, leaving the Hai Peng at a slight disadvantage going into the boarding action. With great drama the boarding action failed! The Hai Peng only lost an oarsman but in reality she had lost the game, as the Roanoke ended the game on the next turn by docking home her two 5's to give the American Pirates a thrilling 20-11 victory!

This was one of the more interesting games of this winter so far. It was definitely one of the longest 40 point games I've ever played, with 9 total turns counting the Roanoke's final turn. During the game I noticed some problems with my HPFF fleet. I'll look to correct them as I go along.

Game 2:

HPFF rolled to go first, and the HI setup was reversed with the AP's in the south and HPFF in the east. Instead of two oarsmen on the Banshee's Cry one was swapped out for an explorer.

Turn 1:
The Hai Peng couldn't reach the western island and so was forced to dock at the northwestern island, where she built the Devil's Maw.

Turn 2:
The Banshee's Cry explored the middle wild island and found Jailhouse Dog, Barbary Banner, Maps of Alexandria, and a 2. She took the gold and the Hai Peng was able to see what treasures were on the remaining two islands. She sailed to the northeastern island and built Paradis de la Mer.

The Amity reached the western island and took the gold from it. In the first big move of the game, the Roanoke was Hidden Cove'd to the middle island. The AP's had decided to use HC with the Roanoke rather than to run gold with it. This extra boost of movement got the Roanoke within saccing striking distance of the Hai Peng. Blackheart sacced an oarsman and the Roanoke sunk the Hai Peng while she was docked at Paradis!

Two turns in and the Hai Peng is gone.

Turn 3:
After a great start HPFF was now in big trouble. On the bright side, Mycron could now give the Patagonia's action to the Banshee's Cry, which let her return home at L+L+L+L speed from the middle island. In the meantime Paradis de la Mer exacted some revenge on the Roanoke by hitting twice with both of the cannons that were in range.

Since the Devil's Maw was an easier target, the Roanoke turned west and sacced herself into range of the Pirate fort, hitting twice in five tries between two shoot actions. She could only get two of her three remaining guns in range for the first action. It was now up to the Roanoke to take out a fort since they held all the gold left in play that was needed for the AP's to win.

Turn 4:
The Banshee's Cry zipped out to Paradis and grabbed the 5 coin, which was the last coin that could leave the fort since the two 2's had to stay. This is actually one of the biggest weaknesses of the HPFF fleet because they can only get so much gold home from the forts they build. The Devil's Maw took a mast off the Roanoke with her three remaining cannons to establish a slight numerical advantage.

The Amity returned home with 8 gold, making the score 8-7 in favour of the AP's. The Roanoke sacced her explorer to shoot twice at the Devil's Maw but only hit once in four tries.

Turn 5:
The Banshee's Cry docked home the 5 from Paradis to take the lead 12-8. The Devil's Maw connected for a hit on the Roanoke, leaving the flagship with just one mast.

On the AP's turn the Roanoke sacced her valuable helmsman to shoot twice at the Devil's Maw. The risk paid off as the Roanoke hit both times to make the fort abandoned and render it useless!

Turn 6:
This is when the game started getting down to the wire. With the Hai Peng long gone and the Roanoke with one mast standing, the lesser ships would finally decide the outcome of the game.

Since the Roanoke was still around the Devil's Maw island that the Banshee's Cry had to get to in order to load the winning gold, HPFF decided to use Mycron's action for the Lezard, who had been sailing northwest ever since her partner in crime (the HP) had sunk. HPFF was worried about the speed (S+S+S) of the Bandido to ram the Banshee's Cry out of commission. The Lezard was given an extra action which she used to ram the Bandido, needing just a 2 to hit. She rolled a 1, leaving the AP's with 5 masts in the area and HPFF with 2.

With no crew left to sac and no helmsman, Blackheart fired the Roanoke's last cannon at the Devil's Maw, but it missed. The Bandido sailed around the Lezard and rammed her in return, but somehow the Bandido also rolled a 1.

Turn 7:
With the Roanoke now in ramming range, the Lezard now rammed her and succeeded in taking out her last mast. The Roanoke was now derelict. The Banshee's Cry used Mycron to approach the crucial northwestern island, which was actually the first island to be explored in this game.

The Amity returned the favour by ramming the Lezard, leaving three ships (two derelict) all in contact with one another.

Turn 8:
The Banshee's Cry docked at the Devil's Maw and loaded 4 gold, which would be enough to win the game for HPFF.

This was already a great, close, hard-fought game, but now it really started getting ridiculous. The Banshee's Cry had measured multiple times and determined that there was nowhere at the northwestern island that she could dock without being in ramming range of the two Pirate ships. She docked on the far side of the island anyway.

The Bandido came around the north side of the island and rammed the Cry. Needing a 2 to dismast the Cry and probably win the game for the AP's, the Bandido rolled another 1! The Amity sailed around the south side of the island, rammed the Banshee's Cry and rolled a 1! The boarding rolls were ineffective and the Banshee's Cry had inexplicably survived!

Is this die cursed?

The infamous and now apparently invincible Banshee's Cry:

Turn 9:
The Banshee's Cry was trapped between the Amity and the Bandido, and if you read my report from the game using El Garante a few weeks ago you'll remember the moment where the huge ship was trapped on both sides by ships that had rammed her. I feel that it would be very unfair for a fleet to lose in such a way and therefore the "no ship may turn more than 90 degrees" house rule was temporarily broken to allow the Banshee's Cry to move. She took off with the help of Mycron and there was no hope of the Amity or Bandido of catching her.

The Bandido used a shoot action to finally destroy the Devil's Maw, and the Amity used her explorer to grab the 7 gold that was in the fort.

Turns 10 and 11:
The ships raced for home with their gold, but it was no contest. The Cry docked home 4 gold to give HPFF a 16-8 win!

This was one of the craziest games I've played so far this run and one of the better ones I've played overall. It was even longer than the last one between these fleets (11 turns and 9 for the first one). They seem to be unnaturally evenly matched, which makes for awesome gameplay. HPFF appears better on paper, but the advantage of having Hidden Cove is HUGE. This really evens out the fleets and even gives the American Pirates the upper hand in some ways.

It was good to see the smaller ships see action after the Roanoke and especially the Hai Peng were knocked out of the game. HPFF showed their mettle by winning the game even after their main ship was sunk on the second turn.

Despite the game's length and overall excitement, I think I'll always remember this game as the failed ramming game (or the ram game maybe?). I believe there were SIX ram attempts on ships with one mast, and only two of them succeeded! Mathematically you'd expect 5/6 to work. Perhaps shoot actions aren't the only time where huge amounts of 1's are rolled...

Game 3:

The third game featured the HPFF HI in the west and the AP HI on the northeast island. HPFF rolled to go first.

Turn 1:
The Hai Peng explored the middle island, finding Holy Water, Maps of Alexandria (thus turning over all the other treasure on the islands), a 5 and a 1. She sent the 5 home and kept the 1 and Holy Water. Then the HP went south and explored another island, sending another 5 gold home which came right back in the form of the Devil's Maw.

Turn 2:
The HP now went to the northwestern island and grabbed Jailhouse Dog in order to potentially cancel Barbary Banner, which was on the eastern island near the AP HI. The HP sent a 2 to the Lezard. The Banshee's Cry loaded 4 gold from the Devil's Maw. At the end of the turn Paradis de la Mer was built on the northwest island.

The Amity used Ghost Ship to sail through the northwest island and ram the docked Hai Peng. The ram and board were successful, leaving the HP with one mast and the Amity with 1 gold in her cargo hold. The Bandido docked at the eastern island. The Roanoke was Hidden Cove'd to the middle island from which she sacced an oarsman to sink the Banshee's Cry to the south. Divers was flipped to give the AP's all 4 gold on their HI. The Roanoke was 4 out of 5 on her shoot action, with her last two hits coming against the Devil's Maw.

Turn 3:
HPFF began the turn by opening fire with their two forts. This was probably the most triumphant game I've played with forts. The Devil's Maw blasted the Roanoke 3/3 to leave her with two masts remaining. Then Paradis de la Mer let loose a flurry of shots on the Amity, shredding her to pieces and leaving her derelict! Once again the rage of the gunners on Paradis had gotten revenge on the AP's for attacking the Hai Peng. When the smoke cleared from these battles the Hai Peng had already sailed away and was almost to the Bandido in the east.

The Bandido explored and took Barbary Banner and a 5 and a 2. The Roanoke retreated, with no interest in engaging the Devil's Maw.

Turn 4:
The Hai Peng dismasted the Bandido with her first action and captured her and explored the island with her second action. This left the Roanoke as the only AP ship left that could move.

Turn 5:
The HP towed the Bandido back the way she had come to the northwest, desperate to stay out of the Roanoke's range. The Roanoke sailed north, dismasting the Lezard, which had sailed out to capture the Amity.

Turn 6:
The Lezard had plenty of oarsmen aboard (including her French one) and captured the Amity. HPFF had now captured two of the three AP ships and the Roanoke only had two masts standing. The Hai Peng sailed south with the Bandido in tow (still moving S+L+S+S+L+S because of the bonuses and Mycron), once again avoiding the Roanoke. The Roanoke turned south but was just out of range.

Turn 7:

The Hai Peng docked, bringing in 14 gold between her and the Bandido. This gave Hai Peng Fort Frenzy a 16-4 victory and means that they win this series 2 games to 1!

This was an amazing series that was hotly contested. These fleets are very evenly matched, with both of the first two games taking a long time and going down to the wire. The third game finally featured a near-perfect game from HPFF, which shows how fast and powerful it can be. Hai Peng Fort Frenzy beats the American Pirates 2 games to 1.

Okay? Am i missing something, like how are you being able to immediately send treasures home after exploring?

You should look at the fleet in the link provided. Captain Jack Sparrow can trade a treasure with a crew on any friendly ship, so if you have a ship at your HI you can redock and unload the gold on the same turn. The ship with CJS never even loads the gold.

The islands were set up in a pyramid fashion to change things up. HMS Grand Temple v 3.0 (now referred to as GT3) rolled to go first, followed by the Gold Race fleet. Since the Gold Race fleet was entirely Pirate, the Headhunter's world-hater was nullified. However, GT3 figured it wouldn't matter with no opposing ship having more than 2 masts.

Turn 1:
The GT and Oxford couldn't hit any of the Pirate ships docked at their home island.

The Gold Race fleet followed the 1st turn protocol laid out by darrin in his fleet description. However, I noticed a few issues. When trading away bad UT's with Pedro Gilbert, the ship "must load the traded treasure". However, with Jonah and so many crew/equipment on the ship, there's no space with which to load it. Halfway through the first turn I decided that the Banshee's Cry never started the game with English Letter of Marque aboard, which let the Cry trade later in the turn. For the first island she decided to keep Enemy of the State since the Cry didn't plan on docking at her HI at any point in the game.

In addition, this fleet may be the most confusing fleet I've ever played. Evident by selvaxri's comment above, Captain Jack Sparrow is probably the biggest conundrum in Pirates. (On another note, how does the crew/treasure swap work thematically?) I didn't get it at first either and evidently I'm still having trouble with how powerful he is because in this game I made another mistake. Not only is the gold NOT loaded by the ship carrying CJS, the traded crew doesn't go on the ship either, it just sits on the island in place of the coin. I thought there was an issue where since Jonah makes the oarsman take up space, there wouldn't be any space with which to load the traded crew (which you would want to sac with Pedro anyway).

Lastly, Sunken Treasure probably shouldn't be in the fleet because as darrin alluded to in his introduction to UPS v 2.0, CJS can't trade away UT's that are loaded face up.

On the first island that the BC explored, she found Enemy of the State, Sunken Treasure, and two 2's (not enough to win). After trading a 2 home (which got +3'd by the Bonnie Liz), the BC sacced a crew to move to the next island to the north. Here she found Natives, which was traded away by Pedro for a 6 from another island. In addition to trading Natives away via Pedro, she traded a 4 home via CJS, giving the Pirates 12 gold at the end of the first turn.

Turn 2:

The Grand Temple sacced an oarsman but still couldn't reach the Banshee's Cry. The Oxford was partially blocked by the Pirates' HI and sailed around it, sinking the Rover in the process.

The BC dumped her explorer and oarsman on the second island to make room for another explorer from home, which in hindsight was actually unnecessary because the crew isn't actually loaded. She then traded a 2 home for a 17-0 victory!

Because of the cargo complications (which I'm still wrapping my head around, lol), I don't know if I played this fleet 100% correctly. However, it still won by the end of the second turn without the Grand Temple firing a shot!

We were running 86 total treasure [1 x10, 2 x10, 3 x8, 4 x4, 5 x2, 6 x2, with three UT's: Claw Cannon , Forged Papers , & Plague .] we agree on a 45 to win, using a "blind hunt" house rule.
*blind hunt is all islands were assigned an amount of treasures [4, in this case] and when exploring unexplored islands you pulled the treasure from a box and replaced what treasure a player didn't collect.

I'll post what specifics i can remember, but it was a good game with some interesting twists.

Okay, instead of typing up a literal play-by-play, here's the summarized report:

I played the Corsairs and being more familiar with the game loaded up two ships with SAT rollers- Jack Hawkins and Kheir-ed-fin; my friend, Rick, not so familiar with the mechanics, just loaded up with basic crew.
I was running Jack on the Tiger's Eye as my gold runner ship- double movements! Plus her immunity to long rang cannons would prove the game ender in the end.

Rick was thinking frugally when he build his fleet, a few Pirate ships he had already assembled.

The first few turns saw me rolling for SATs, of which Jack got a few to reach his target island, Kheir wasn't so lucky [well, i have to roll a 6]; whereas Rick and his Fleet spread out.

Things got interested a few turns in when i revealed the Event i had bought with our 50pt-buy: Mermaids , and slapped it on his hunter ship- the Executioner . Bey's Revenge with John Ward got close enough to atleast get a couple of shots in, in the worst case. Best case, being trying to sink the Execution via Kheir's SAT.

Plans changed when the Dragon's Breath explored the island it docked at and, with John Ward- i kind of got greedy. Actually getting a 6, Kheir gave Bey's Revenge a second action- which was used the shoot at the pre-occupied Execution, eliminating one mast, then charged head on at the docked Dragon's Breath- ramming it
Sadly, failing at the boarding party [i had found out that Galley's can't eliminate masts when ramming], saw John Ward executed. With little else to do, BR used her Stern Turn ability to get out of range of all the Dragon's Breath cannon.

That was until Rick revealed a Cannoneer and a Captain, he moved and fired off all her cannons and sunk the Bey's Revenge.

Not wanting to be outmatched, i got another 6 for Khier, and the Splendor got close enough to fire off a couple cannons at the Executioner only being able to render it Derelict. Jack and Tiger's Eye sailed into the middle of the map where everything was happening to help if needed.

Rick made the smart move- used the Dragon's Breath to try to sink the Splendor- sadly, only getting close enough to eliminate two masts, then used the Belladonna to tow the Executioner out of the fray.
The Tiger's Eye loaded with treasure from exploring and the Splendor two masts down both got their double action and sailed home to drop off treasure and repair; Rick did likewise, though letting the Dragon's Breath tow the Executioner the rest of the way, leaving the Belladonna to explore.

A Few turns later, Jack landed on a Mysterious Island that gave me the chance to get an Event- with limited available, i opted to get back Mermaids- much to my opponent's displeasure.

The Mermaids was later used the distract the Belladonna, then saw the Tiger's Eye and Splendor converging on what was obviously my opponent's treasure snatcher ship [i had amassed a good hoard of treasure in this 45/86 game.]. Further more, the Belladonna was the only 'threat' to my Tiger's Eye.

By the time the Mermaids had dispersed, the Belladonna was derelict and i saw an opportunity- using the Splendor's Stern Turn, i managed to come in contact with the Belladonna and began towing it. Two treasures, Calico Cat, & a British explorer.

Rick did another smart thing- by risking sailing over a Reef to get the Dragon's Breath within range to sink the Belladonna. Thanks to a 1 on the Reef roll, and his cannoneer's reroll- he actually succeeded in sink the purloined Belladonna. The Execution came sweeping in, hit once, eliminating my Kheir-ed-Din.

Panicked, and without a leader, the Splendor tried to fight back, but failed only to be sunk the next turn.

Now it became a game of "Catch me if you can" and treasure gathering, as my friend decided on "last man standing"
Unfortunately for Rick, when the Executioner went exploring and found the Plague, it really became a game of cat and mouse- with the only chance to cause damage to the Long-range immune Tiger's Eye- was to ram it, and hopefully transfer the Plague.
Which he was able to do, when Jack failed his SAT roll on route home- and he was rammed while docked.

Tiger's Eye did a literal 3-point-turn to rePlague the Executioner.

After the Tiger's Eye disappeared into a Fog Bank, running from Rick's two ships- only to emerge from the fog into the Dragon's Breath. The Tiger's Eye went on the run afterwards, with mediocre S-Range cannnons, she didn't want to get rammed and sammiched.

Running short on time, we called the game. Tiger's Eye was too fast to try to ram, and constantly 'out of range', i wasn't going to explore and try to get last few points needed to win.

My friend and i had fun in our first game. I had the advantage, knowing more of the mechanics- he just want to play some Pirates.

next time we play, it'll definitely be a smaller treasure pool. This game took a good couple hours.

Since deathmatches are pretty self-explanatory I thought I'd do my first (and possibly last) pictures-only battle report! It was actually one of the longer and harder-fought deathmatches that I've seen.

Hope you enjoyed! I'll be back sometime this week with another game. I'm going to try and set an unofficial record for the biggest multiplayer game ever! I've used as many as 9 fleets in a game once before; now I'm looking at 10 or hopefully more! Part of the reason I'm doing this is because all the fleets I've played so far this run have been 40 point fleets and they're all still out. I can relatively easily combine them into one huge game, although obviously I can't use every fleet that's been played so far because a lot of them use the same ships (especially UPS and the Grand Temple).

I've been preparing for the huge multiplayer game. There will be 12 fleets.

Normally for multiplayer games there are 3 islands for each player (36 total in this case) and 6 treasures per player. However, partly due to space constraints and partly due to the fact that less wild islands may lead to more battling and excitement, there will be 30 islands total instead of 36. However, each fleet will still bring 6 coins apiece for a total of 72 coins. This will leave 4 gold on each island instead of the usual 3 for a multiplayer game (72 gold/18 wild islands).

I think the order of play will go in the order that I have laid out the fleets in, which was completely random.

I've listed the fleets below (not in the order of play). However, most of the fleets from MT have been modified in some way. The only events allowed are Divers and Rafts, which means that no fleet is using Hidden Cove or Becalmed. In addition I had to make a few edits to make things work. Lastly, I'm going to try to include some of the UT's that are in the linked fleets, but with 6 coins instead of 8 and so many islands that a fleet won't be able to get to, some will not be included.

Finally, some of these fleets are between 40 and 45 points even if they don't technically have a 0LR +5 crew listed. At this point it's trivial details and is necessary to save time, plus the fleets are already messed up after taking out all of the Hidden Coves, lol.

I'd really love to use the insert function but I'd rather spend the time actually playing.

A fleet using stuff I just got (literally a few days ago) from volt, selvaxri, and rhyrneson:
Cannibal King + Hammersmith (F&S), oarsman
Kray-kin
(I wanted to use my first kraken anyway since I've been waiting ages to get ahold of one. However, I forgot about her universal crew-cancelling ability! When I saw it I realized I HAD to use it in a game like this with so many crew (12 fleets worth!))

I've set up all 30 islands, 10 of which are mysterious and can't be chosen as home islands, and I've put down some terrain. There will be 6 of each type of terrain. I've strung some reefs together up north to almost block the passage between two islands. Of the six icebergs four of them are stuck together in two different pairs to form larger icebergs that will move as one berg. Once I get some pictures the whole setup will become more clear.

I don't know if this is the biggest multiplayer game (in terms of the total number of fleets) ever for Pirates CSG. Even if it's not, it may be the biggest conglomeration of fleets from MT involved in a single game. There are multiple fleets from myself and darrin, as well as fleets from lordstu and volt, not to mention the Garante/Canoes combo was from woelf.

I'm super stoked for this game! Part of the reason I'm posting this now is so the actual report won't be as long, though I'll probably just edit this post and add it on so it's not confusing. It may take more than one day to complete. With so many fleets out there I can't wait to see what happens! From my previous reports you can already see what havoc is created with fleets like UPS and El Garante/HMS GT/Roanoke, etc. Imagine all those with a bunch of other fleets, Dragon Eyes, tons of UT's, and a brand-new kraken thrown in! Looking forward to some multiplayer mayhem!